Apparatus for tempering metal articles.



E. H. & J. H. STEEDMAN. APPARATUS FOB. TEMPERING METAL AETIOLBS.

Patented May 21, 1912.

- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

v EDWIN H. STEEDMAN AND JAMES H. STEEDMAN, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, ASSIGN ORS I ing is a full, clear, such as will'enable others skilled in. the art TO CURTIS & COMPANY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF WELLSTON, MISSOURI, A

CORPORATION or mssoum.

APPARATUS FOR TE MPERI NG- METAL ARTICLES.

To all whom it may concern."

- Be it known that we, EDWIN H. S'rnno- MAN and JAMES H. STEEDMAN, both citizens of the United States,residing at St. Louis, Missouri, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for'Tempering Metal Articles, of which the followand exact description,

to which it appertains to make and use the same.

a This invention relates to the manufacture of metal articles which have to be heated to-a predetermined temperature and then quenched or submerged in a liquid bath so as to temper them.

One ob ect of the invention is to provide an apparatus of novel construction wh1ch makes it possible to heat'a large number of articles atone time and temper each article uniformly, thereby reducing the cost of manufacture and also insuring a more perfeet 1 product than could be obtained with the methods heretofore in general use. And

another object is to provide an apparatus which overcomes the necessity of manually handling each article during the operation of transferring it from the furnace in which it is heated to the bath in which it is thereafter quenched.

Fi re 1 of thedrawings is a vertical lon- -gitl1 a1 sectional .view of an apparatus constructed in accordance with our invention; and Fig. 2 is a' vertical cross sectional view of the heating furnace which forms part of said apparatus.

' The apparatus herein shown which represents one form of our invention consists of a heating furnace A of any preferred type or desi which is provided with an opening which a. car B can be moved into 'the furnace, said opening being normally closed by a door 1. The car B forms the bottom of the furnace chamber-C and is therefore provided with. a floor 2 of refractory material on which the articles being treated are placed. Any suitable means may be employed-for heating the articles in the furnace chamber C, the furnace herein shown having openings 3 through which the heating medium is sup lied to the furnace chamber. When the urnace is in operation the joints around the edges of the floor 2 of the car, and between ,the lower Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed August 1, 1911.

Patented May 21, 1912. Serial No. 641,704.

edge of the door 1' of the furnace and the floor 2 of the car, are hermetically sealed by means which we Will hereinafter describe. a

After the articles being treated have been heated to a predetermined temperature in the furnace chamber C the car B with the articles thereon is'withdrawn from said furnace chamber and immersed in'a liquid bath D so' as to quench the articles and thus temper them. In the apparatus herein shown the liquid in which the articles are quenched is contained in a tank 4 arranged in a lower horizontal plane than the furnace A, and an elevator E is arranged in said tank for receiving the-car B after it has been withdrawn from the furnace chamber C. Said elevator may be of any preferred design or construction, and any suitable means may be employed for raising and lowering it'such, for example, as a doubleacting cylinder F provided with a piston .which'is connected by suitable cables 5 and 6 to the elevator so aslto'cause it to move downwardly when the piston moves in one direction and upwardly when the piston moves in the opposite direction, thereby immersing the car B with the articles thereon in the liquid-bath D and subsequently withdrawing said car with the articles thereon from said bath. We wish it distinctly understood, however, that it is immaterial, so far as our broad idea is concerned, what particular means is used for immersing and withdrawing the member on which the articles are arranged after saidmember has been removed from the furnace in which the articles. are heated. The tank 4 is preferably located in close proximity to-the furnace A, and the elevator E is provided with a track 7 which'alines with a track 7 leading from the furnace, when the elevator is in its raised osition, but it will, of course, be understood that the tank could be located in'. other positions, and thatother means than a track could be employed for conveyin the car from the furnace to the queue ing bath.

The refractory floor 2 of the car B is preferably formed from' fire-bricks, and the walls of the furnace A are-provided with portions or ledges 8 which project slightly under the edge portions of the floor 2 of the car when the car is arranged in the'furnace,

- ables metal articles to heating furnace to the as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. By constructing the furnace in this manner, namely, providing the walls of same with ledges or portions 8 which project slightly under the edge portions of the floor of the car which constitutes the bottom of the furnace chamber, we are able to hermetically seal the joints at the edges of the floor 2 of the car by simply filling said joints with sand-9, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The sand flows downwardly onto the ledges 8 on the walls of the furnace and thus becomes packed firmly in the slot or space between the peripheral edges of the floor 2 of the car and the walls of the furnace. We also seal the joint between the lower edge of the door 1 of the'furnace and the floor 2 of the car by means of sand 9*, as shown in Fig. 1.

One advantage of 'an apparatus of the construction-above described is that it encost owing to the fact of articles are heated at one time and thereafter quenched without handling the articles individually, it being possible with such an apparatus to treat at one time as many articles of assorted size as can be placed in the furnace. \Vhen articles or small pieces of metal are withdrawn-individually from the heating furnace, or even when they are withdrawn in groups, the temperature of the furnace changes after the doors are opened and while the first article or batch of articles is being handled. Consequently, itwas not practicable with the apparatuses heretofore in general use to treat a large number of articles or pieces of metal at one time, thereby making the cost oftreating the articles very high on account of the fuel and labor expended.

Another advantage of our apparatus is that it enables articles to be tempered uniformly because the articles are maintained at a uniformly predetermined temperature while they are being transferred from the bath in which they are quenched. That is to say, by taking the whole carload of articles out of the furnace at one time each article is kept at the desired temperature on accountof the volume of artlcles and conse-- of heat in the mass quently has no time 'to cool off before it is quenched. If the articles were removed one by one from the heating furnace, as in the apparatuses heretoforefin general use, certain portions of same would be aptto cool off more quickly than other portions and consequently the article wouldinot be temperedunifor mly throughout its entire body. 60.

This unequal cooling is particularl apt to occur with long thin articles,

" heat which radiates from be tempered at a low that a large number it being very difficult to remove such articles from the heating furnace and then submerge them In the quen hing portion of the article cool off slightly or drop below the required temperature. Our apparatus overcomes this objectionable feature and makes it possibleto produce articles which are tempered uniform-1y because the the large body of heated material on the floor of the car will bath without having some hold even the thinnest a'rticle at the required temperature.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. An apparatus for treating metal ar ticles, comprising a" heating furnace, a car that is adapted to be movedhorizontally into and out of said furnace so as to form the bottom of the furnace chamber, the'car being provided wit-h a refractory-floor on which the articles rest while they are being heated and quenched, a tank containing a quenching bath, and meansfor enabling the car with the articles thereon to be immersed in said bath after the car has been withdrawn from the furnace.

2. An apparatus for treating" metal articles, comprising a heating furnace provided in one of its side walls with a door, a car that is adapted to be moved horizontally into and out of the furnace, a refractory floor on said car for supporting the articles and which forms the bottom of the furnace chamber when the car is arranged in the furnace, a tank that contains a quenching bath, said tank and bath being separate and distinct from the furnace and having no effect on the operation of thefurnace, and means for enabling the car with the articles thereon to be immersed in said bath after the car has been withdrawn from the furnace.

3. An apparatus for treating metal articles comprising a heating furnace, a tank located adjacent said furnace and containing a quenching bath, a track leading from said tank and extending into. said furnace, a car on said track that forms the b6ttom of the chamber of said furnace and on which the articles are placed heating them, and means for raising and during the operation of I lowering the car in said tank after it has i been withdrawn from said furnace.

In. testimony whereof, we hereunto aflix our signatures, in the presence of two witnesses, this 28th day of July, 1911.

. EDWIN H. STEEDMAN. JAME S.H. STEEDMAN.

Witnesses: v

' GEO. E. HOFFMANN,

R. E. WINKLER. 

